The Values, World Society and Modelling Yearbook 2015, like the 2014 Yearbook, analyses contemporary world events with special attention to values, drawing on foundational ideas in a variety of academic disciplines. World society in 2015 exhibited economic, political and cultural tensions: growth and austerity; the Greek bailout referendum; the Paris attacks on the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists; the Christian south and Muslim north in the Nigerian elections; and religion and secularism in Ireland’s referendum on same-sex marriage. Demographics, austerity, migration and nationalism were all issues in the UK general election. There were debates about immigration into Europe and debates about Western military intervention. There were debates about the Enlightenment surrounding the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo. The year 2015 was the seventieth anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations, and the centenary of the birth of one of those who attended the San Francisco conference in 1945, namely John Burton, founder of the Conflict Research Society. Chapter Two of the Yearbook is “The John Burton Memorial Lecture 2015”, by Kevin Clements. Other guest contributors are Feargal Cochrane, Hugh Miall, Dennis Sandole and Rania Dimitraki. The modelling aspect of the Yearbook is strongly structured around the notions of space, time and value. Six of the chapters are about space – physical space, geographical space, psychological space, social space, political space and value space. Four of the chapters are about time: time series for human development and population; revisiting the Pinker debate about a decline in violence; physical and structural violence; the 1945–2015 UK decline in two-party and three-party politics; the flight from the centre and the rise of UKIP and Jeremy Corbyn. The chapter “Life is a Journey” discusses values in a qualitative way, then models of values are developed for particular topics and finally a systematic account is given of value spaces.

The Values, World Society and Modelling Yearbook 2014 analyses contemporary world events, drawing on foundational ideas in various academic disciplines. The year 2014 was the centenary of the start of the First World War and the seventieth anniversary of the Normandy landings in the Second World War. The year saw violent conflict in Ukraine and the rise of the Islamic State in parts of Syria and Iraq. A referendum was held in Scotland to decide whether to stay in the UK. Centrist parties lost ground in the European Parliament elections and a general election was held in India, the biggest ever election in the world. Thomas Piketty sparked debate with his analysis of growing inequality in capitalist economies. Politicians in the UK talked about ‘British values’ and debated ‘is Britain Christian?’ The British Museum lent one of the Elgin Marbles to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and Putin made overtures to China. In California, Elliot Rodger went on the rampage, killing six people. Malala Yousafzay won the Nobel Peace Prize, Maryam Mirzakhani won the Fields Medal and Judit Polgar retired from international chess. Germany won the World Cup in Brazil. Echoes of the Big Bang confirmed the theory of how the universe began. The 2014 Yearbook discusses these events alongside a variety of other specific events and general issues. In addition, this book includes the speech given by Kevin Avruch when he was joint recipient of the Conflict Research Society Book of the Year Prize 2014 for his book Context and Pretext in Conflict Resolution.

World events in 2017 have revealed the fundamental features of social systems and their trajectories. Is the world becoming a better place in terms of wellbeing, wealth, health, peace and the environment? The structure of power is changing, with the prominent roles played by Trump, Putin and Xi, and, while the West is growing and still dominant, the relative growth in the East is greater. Other cultural formations, such as languages, religions and political cultures, have also risen and fallen. How have different social groups related to one another, and how have social divisions manifested themselves in the different systems of society? An analysis of the surprising election in the UK here leads to a gravitational model of party trajectories in political space, while the fascinating 358-year trajectory of mathematical knowledge relating to Fermat’s Last Theorem and modularity is also presented. As such, this is a book about peace and conflict, politics, international relations, social science and quantitative methods.

This year's issue contains several articles about eSports. This time there are more research articles included. The topics range from research about eSports spectatorship, the informal roles in Counter-Strike Teams, a potential reverse gamification effect, the chances of eSports being an Olympic discipline, the connection between League of Legend teams and the owning corporations, the ergonomics in eSports and the health perception of gamers, to the potential shift in FPS games. The book is a statement: eSports is not only booming in the business context but increasingly gains attention in research as well.

The annual Global Civil Society Yearbooks provide an indispensable guide to global civil society or civic participation and action around the world. The 2009 Yearbook explores the framings, strategies and impacts of a range of actors on poverty and its alleviation. The overarching question is to whether such actors, in pressing for poverty alleviation actually achieve anything/empower the poor, or simply aid wealthy states in maintaining the status quo. The contributors are diverse, including scholars and practitioners from India, America, the UK, Australia, Thailand, and Mali. The Global Civil Society Yearbook remains the standard work on all aspects of contemporary global civil society for activists, practitioners, students and academics alike. It is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the key actors, forms and manifestations of global civil society around the world today.

This yearbook on education for 2001 brings together leading international voices on values in education and presents a window on current debates. These include such fundamental issues as who should decide upon the values we adopt.

Digital methodologies, new forms of data visualization and computer-based learning and assessment are creating new challenges as well as opportunities for scholars in educational research. The World Yearbook of Education 2019 explores this highly relevant topic, opening a new discussion about the various conceptual and methodological challenges and opportunities in contemporary educational research. This volume explores contemporary methods of inquiry, with chapters organized around four topics of enduring interest in this field: impacts, patterns, relations and contexts. The World Yearbook of Education 2019 comprises contributions from internationally renowned scholars exploring novel concepts and methodologies in grappling with contemporary empirical phenomena in educational research. Vital questions such as how we understand the technological developments that are creating new possibilities for and demands on education, and how we make sense of complex cases that cut across multiple nations, are discussed. This newest addition to the prestigious World Yearbook of Education series provides a fascinating read for scholars in the fields of education policy and comparative education. It is not only a useful resource for educational researchers and policy makers examining new trends and emerging issues, but would be of interest to graduate students exploring innovative methodologies, particularly in the study of education and education policy.

This book provides a rich overview and takes a closer look at the current state of theory and practice in the field of sustainable business models. The chapters in this book examine and analyze existing and new approaches towards sustainable business models and showcase the implementation of sustainable business through both quantitative and qualitative studies, including several case studies and many practical examples. It approaches these issues from the standpoints of diverse business disciplines to yield new insights and ideas that are relevant from both an academic and professional perspective. In its essence, the book examines how firms’ value creation processes can be driven by sustainability and social responsibility and how this impacts business and society. Readers will find a range of sustainable business models that have been employed and are being pioneered in various industries around the globe – which are thoroughly investigated and discussed, and put into a comprehensive conceptual framework.

The Yearbook of International Religious Demography presents an annual snapshot of the state of religious statistics around the world. Every year large amounts of data are collected through censuses, surveys, polls, religious communities, scholars, and a host of other sources. These data are collated and analyzed by research centers and scholars around the world. Large amounts of data appear in analyzed form in the World Religion Database (Brill), aiming at a researcher’s audience. The Yearbook presents data in sets of tables and scholarly articles spanning social science, demography, history, and geography. Each issue offers findings, sources, methods, and implications surrounding international religious demography. Each year an assessment is made of new data made available since the previous issue of the yearbook. The 2015 issue highlights both global and local realities in religious adherence, from the demographics of the world's atheists to the emigration of Christians from the Middle East. Other case studies include inter-religious marriage patterns in Austria, Muslim immigration to Australia, and methodological challenges in counting Hasidic Jews.